Sugar Beet – The First Sweet for Europe

The scientific name of sugar beet is Beta vulgaris, which is
also known as chard, biennial herbaceous plant.
It is cultivated from western and southern coast of Europe, all the way from
Sweden transplanted to Spain. It is another major source of sugar after sugar
cane. Wild sugar beet was said to be originated
in the Mediterranean coast. Wild beet was introduced into China from Arabia
countries around AD 1500. Species with
high sugar content was introduced into China in 1906. Besides for its sugar content, there are species
beet which for its leaf and root as vegetable, and there are also for animal
feed.

Vegetable beet is generally cooked or pickled in the United
States, and Russians and Eastern Europeans use the beet for their traditional
beet soup. Sugar beet is one of the most
important commercial crop in Europe. It was bred in Germany in eighteenth
Century. Napoleon had encouraged his citizens the planting of sugar beet due to
the British’s embargo. Sugar beet is now
widely planted in whole Europe. It accounts for about 2/5 of the world’s sugar
production, the main producing countries are Ukraine, Russia, the United
States, France, Poland, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Romania and the United Kingdom.

Due to its sugar content, it has up to 19 thousand calories
in every 100 grams. Besides that, there
are also smaller amount of protein, fat, carbohydrates, and fiber. It also content micro nutrients like vitamin A,
thiamine riboflavin, niacin, vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus, vitamin K, sodium,
magnesium, iron, zinc, and copper.

Beets are easy to digest, help to improve appetite, relieve
headaches, beets, and even help prevent colds and anemia. A peeled beet root can easily mix with others
in a delicious and simple salad, with some seasoning. Beet root juice contains abundant nitrite
substances, which has the functions of lowering blood pressure and preventing
senile dementia.

Beet root also contains iodine composition which help to
prevent goiter, prevent and even cure atherosclerosis. Both the root and leaves of sugar beet root
contain a betaine composition, where other vegetables do not have. It also has the lecithin and choline,
biochemical and pharmacological function, is an effective regulator can improve
the liver function and protein absorption. Beet root also contains a saponin
substances that can bind with cholesterol and make it hard to be absorbed into
the body and will be discharged out. There
are a considerable amount of magnesium in the beet root, which can help to
prevent blood arteries from calcification and improve elasticity of blood
vessel, which plays an important role in the treatment of hypertension. Beet
roots also contain a large amount of cellulose and pectin components, which is
an important factor for curing stomach ulcer. Also, because of its content of iron, copper,
manganese and other elements, it can also treat anemia related diseases.

Researchers at the London School of medicine studied 15
hypertensive patients and found that if these patients drank about 250
milliliters of beetroot juice a day, they could reduce blood pressure by 10
mmhg. It was found that the most significant time was about 3~6 hours.